


How do you catch a speedster?

by Microsoftberry



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: ... Then who is this new god-like puppy-like speedster that started to rain down hell on the city?, Everybody knows the love/hurt story of the two superheroes duh, Everybody says that the Captain Cold lost the love of his life that day, Leonard Snart is a beloved hero of Central City, M/M, Multi, Plot What Plot, The reporter finds out that the Flash is dead now, except one reporter from the Starling City has no clue, happy ending obviously because that's the only logical option
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-15
Updated: 2019-05-25
Packaged: 2020-01-13 18:37:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 14,924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18474751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Microsoftberry/pseuds/Microsoftberry
Summary: Leonard Snart is a beloved hero(no, Legend) of Central City. Everybody knows the love/hurt story of the two superheroes, except one new reporter from the Starling City who came to cover Captain Cold and he has no clue.The reporter finds out that the Flash is dead now. Everybody says that the Captain Cold lost the love of his life that day. ... Then who is this new god-like puppy-like speedster that started to rain down hell on the city?





	1. A new reporter from Starling City has no clue

Leonard Snart was a beloved hero of Central City. 

Jason Moore was an eager new journalist from Starling City, who just got appointed as the correspondent for the renowned city. He was so excited, he has been busy traveling from city to city and only recently got back to town, but was not sorry to leave his hometown for Central City because the city was renowned for its people, who were super great(yeah, Starling and Gotham was fine, fiiiiine, but the people were quite tough and did not react kindly when bothered, I mean, jeeesh) and its resident hero, Captain Cold. 

"Jason, over here!"

His friend Mia was waving him at the table, and Jason quickly got there. He was greeted with a warm hug, huge grin and an ice-latte that's just been made. Jason looked at it, cell phone already in his hand, taking pictures for Instagram when he and his friend was already bursting with gossips to catch up on and asking how their friends and families were doing. It was when he was taking the third picture of the drink(he already sent it to a bunch of his friends in Starling City, they were so jealous when they heard he was going to Central) when their talk already went through dozens of topics and finally landed on why Jason was in town. 

"I'm here for the Captain Cold, of course. I'm here to cover your city's most famous superhero."

Jason said, finally putting down his phone after posting the picture on his Instagram, on his friends' message with great blue exclamation mark sticker on top of it. 

The drink was obviously inspired by the named hero, its white ice and the mini blue parka was draped around the drink(cute), with two iced blueberries for goggles and snowflake shaped chocolate on top. There was this yellow lightning-shaped deco that you take out before you drink it next to the blueberries, he noticed, and he wondered if the barista got mixed up with decos.  
He was just about to make a joke about the mixed-up deco when his friend's eyes darted towards the tv hanging on the wall. 

"Speaking of superhero---"

She said, and just as Jason followed her gaze and looked at the tv as well as other customers in the cafe, he saw a bright-red color of energy exploding on the screen. People in the screen were screaming and scattering, wherein the middle of the street this woman with her flowing brunette hair was laughing triumphantly. 

"I'm the Scatterer!"

She cried, and when people fleeing from the scene looked back at her for the ridiculous codename, she scowled. 

"That's really the most horrible codename I've ever heard."

One of the teenage girls who was running away from her said and the Scatterer scowled at her. The girl yelped and ran away.  
The meta was shooting a burst of energy from her hands at any directions or targets she liked and people were fleeing while police force was trying to make defense line across the street to evacuate the citizens. Jason grabbed for his bag and stood up, his heart already pumping adrenaline at the appearance of the supervillain. 

"What are you doing? That street is one block away from here, follow me and let's get out of here!"

Mia shouted with people frantically evacuating from the coffee shop as the baristas and staffs instructed them toward the back door. Jason grabbed for his coffee for the last time and drank it up in one large gulp. 

"I'm going there!", Jason shouted. 

"You're not!", Mia shouted back. Jason rolled his eyes. 

"Of course I am, I'm a reporter and I'm not just gonna sit around watching 'the news' from your living room while the supervillain made an appearance right in front of----"

Jason didn't get to finish his sentence, however, because as he ran toward the front of the cafeteria, it exploded with light. And in that moment of feeling like the time slowed down, and Jason felt his body being flown in the air as an invisible force pushed him backward with a big push---

A bolt of lightning crackled from the corner of his eyes. 

"Wha----"

Then the time resumed itself, making the vision around him all blurry and sparks of lightning and when he was back on his feet, he was faced with a guy with a yellow mask. 

"You alright there buddy?"

Jason stared. He had once heard that there was a speedster in the Central City before he took off to see around the world but never met one in person. The air around them suddenly felt fully charged with electricity, and he could swear that he could see pure energy just emitting from this guy. Speedsters were powerful beings, and very rare at that, and he was standing right in front of one. 

"We're fine thanks, how are you doing?"

Mia said next to him, suspiciously sounding like a teenage girl. Jason looked back at her disbelievingly, are you serious right now? Superhero crush?  
The guy- more like a boy actually in his early 20s, grinned at her and nodded. 

"Oh, you showed up, Little Speedy!"

A high-pitched voice of the supervillain lady shouted from behind and the speedster quickly glanced around. 

"I gotta go. You two should get out of here, fast."

He was gone before the last word of his reached their ears with crackling lightning. 

"... He's the Kid Flash."

Mia said, her voice still sounding too giggly. Jason glared at her. And she thought he was the geeky one to get picked(strongly volunteered and may or may not have bribed his colleagues to get picked) by the editor in chief to have an opportunity to cover the neighbor City's resident hero. Then Jason thought, why the 'Kid'? Yes, the kid seemed young but they rarely put that kind of word in front of a superhero, especially to the powerful ones. Why not just call him---  
But he didn't have time for questioning because the earth shuddered under their feet and Mia grabbed him. 

"Come on, let's get out of here."

She said, but Jason has already pulled out his camera from his backpack and holding it firmly. 

"You go, I can get a few pictures of them here. I'll meet you at your place."

"Meet me at my--- oh no, you're not staying here alone!"

Jason had to give it to her, she was a loyal friend. And they ducked down when a crash made them jump, they hid behind the booth and saw the Kid Flash being thrown off shattered the glass in the process. Jason and Mia and few other customers who have yet not able to leave the place crouched down instinctively, running for their cover and places to hide. The glasses shattered everywhere, then the supervillain lady came after, kicking out leftover shards out of the way and looked down at the sprawled out speedster on the floor. 

"Really? Is that all you've got?"

She said, her voice ringing throughout the place and Jason wanted to hit his head because now there was no way of escaping this place without being noticed by the villain, and he dragged Mia into this situation. 

"You know, it actually used to be a lot of fun, messing around this city, especially when I dealt with---"

But she didn't get to finish her sentence(everybody around Central City was having a hard time ending their sentences, really) when a white-blue beam came crashing down from behind her, making her double over and crash right beside the Kid Flash. 

Jason blinked. 

The person, whose footstep was sure and loud, walked through the broken window and everybody held their breath. His finger found itself already clicking madly at the man, taking pictures out of pure instincts(later on he looked back at this moment and recalled, it was his moment of a true sense of duty as a journalist, which Mia rolled her eyes, hard). 

It was Captain Cold. 

"Wha-- You hit me from behind! And you're supposed to be a hero!"

The Scatterer screamed in anger, but the man just huffed and didn't even look remotely sorry. 

"Who cares? I'm not a hero. I'm a Legend. Should have asked that yellow next to you if you wanted a fair match."

He spoke in a drawl, effortlessly making each seemingly harmless words of his sentence sound like the best insult somehow. Jason wondered if it was his superpower. 

"Why do you even care? Why do you even pretend to care? You used to own this city yourself and you got soft and started running around playing hero with these clowns, what's gotten in your head?"

The evil meta lady shouted, and Cold shrugged. 

"I don't run around playing heroes and I don't recognize myself as one either, but you crossed the line here. I'm fine with you kicking that yellow's butt for all you like, but not here. You do not touch this coffee shop."

An increduloused shout burst from both the evil meta lady and the Kid Flash, and the Captain Cold did not seem to be impressed. 

Jason and Mia gaped at the hero(no, Legend) too, wondering how much of a strong feeling that Captain Cold seemed to have about this cafe. I mean, it was a nice cafe and all but, really? 

"Man, seriously? You're going to let her kick my ass as long as it's not in this cafe? I mean I'm not saying she'd really kick my ass I can handle myself fine but seriously, thinking about the word comradery-"

The Kid Flash rambled as the evil meta lady stood up rather gingerly, and she kicked the hero out of the window with one energy blast. 

"Snaaaart!!!"

The Kid Flash's last words went out the window with its owner. Everybody stared. The evil meta lady seemed to contemplate her situation for a moment, then slowly stepped around the Captain Cold to head outside. 

"Why this coffee shop though? What's it to you?"

Then somehow something clicked in the meta's head and she eyed at him, now with sudden sympathetic understanding in them. But Captain Cold just stared coolly at her and the meta decided better against it and left hurriedly out the window.

"... Snart! What is wrong with you? Seriously?"

Then a cop in his middle age came running down the street, gun in his hand and glared at the hero(no, Legend) and ran by when another burst of energy shot through the air and the Kid Flash flew screaming(Nooooo!). Then another person, this time a guy in his mid-twenties came into the coffee shop, his curly hair flipping and bouncing. 

"Snart! Oh good no casualties. I heard the comm but I wasn't sure... but great! No harm done!"

Another scream of Kid Flash's shrieked across the street but neither of them showed any sign of hearing it. 

"Great job Snart. And the coffee shop.. We could fix this less than a day. Iris and I used to work here, and Wally would definitely help fix things in no time, so don't worry."

The bouncy-haired guy said, then heard another scream of the Kid Flash and muttered, 'Yeah well not so willingly, but anyway...'  
Then the bouncy-haired guy looked at the Captain Cold in that same sympathetic look that the meta lady gave before she left. The Captain made a show of putting the gun on his belt and glared. 

"If you look at me like that a second longer, I'll have to throw you to that meta, Cisco."

Captain Cold said, and the guy named Cisco yelped and nodded quickly, turning around. 

"I haven't been in this place for a long time, though."

Cisco said, his eyes wandering to the half-broken place of the cafe. 

"We used to come here every day, Ba--"

He stopped abruptly in mid-sentence and flinched as something hit him. Then Cisco turned around, and slowly walked out, his shoulder slumped and suddenly looking defeated. Captain Cold followed him with his eyes as the shorter man left the cafe without another word, and he drew a deep breath. Jason saw him touch one of the tables that were covered with broken glasses with his gloved hand before he left. 

".....Wow, so that was intense."

Mia said, finally getting out of that crouching (and painful) position they were in behind the tables and looked around. Jason looked around the (half broken) cafe, but this was just a normal coffee shop that Mia suggested to meet at. Yeah the coffee was great and the interior was nice but he couldn't see what was so special in here. What could possibly make the Captain Cold so eager to protect this place?  
Then he bit down something that clicked in his mouth and he stuck his tongue out to see what it was. It was that yellow lightning shaped deco that he forgot to take out before drinking, and then Jason looked down at it. Then something clicked in Jason's head too. 

"Oh my god. Are the Captain Cold and the Kid Flash dating?"

Jason said to Mia and Mia immediately jumped, looking somehow offended and looked at him increduloused.

"What? No!"

"Ow! Okay, but why did you have to hit me?"

Jason said, clutching his arm where Mia punched. (She really was strong for a small girl) 

"Captain Cold's boyfriend is the Flash--- Everybody knows that, at least, he was."

Mia said, her voice suddenly dropped, and Jason looked at her. There was the Flash? So that explains why the speedster was called the Kid Flash, not just the Flash, and the news that the superhero dated another superhero was really huge- But Jason couldn't keep his eyes off his friend's face, and he knew there was some bad news to it. 

"What happened?"

Jason asked, and Mia sighed. 

"The Flash died 9 months ago--- saving the city from a giant electric storm that almost consumed the whole city- and the Captain Cold has been saving the City ever since."


	2. Tales about the Flash

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I deleted the second chapter and wrote a new one with different characters, hope you enjoy! xD

The Central City seemed to be brimming with accidents and events these days, there were meta-related happenings every day, there were big and small robberies and fights, the Kid Flash was seen running around the city more than 30 lapses around the city a day. Even for someone with superspeed, that seemed like quite a lot to Jason and apparently, local news agreed with him too. 

"It's like the whole city is on fire," Henry said. 

Jason was meeting his friends on the Jitters again, yes that coffee shop where he saw mad meta lady shooting death rays and the KidFlash, and Captain Cold. Man, that was cool that day. He had seen lots of metas from that day on, but as exciting as those experiences were, none of them compared to meeting the mascot hero of the city and the infamous (ex)supervillain in the flesh. 

"I read your article on the website, its hits were amazing and you got some great comments," Lucy said another friend of his who met him at the Jitters, and Jason grinned broadly. 

Jason was getting all sorts of scoops these days, it was never a better time and place for a reporter to be in the Central city. Endless series of interesting happenings and crimes taking place all over the city, and he was getting the best reviews from his news accounts on the website, the work had been crazy busy these days but he didn't even get tired. Metahumans were fascinating, their powers so yet to be discovered and their fights made cover stories themselves. But most of all, 

"I'm working on covering the Flash." Jason said, and both his friend kitted their brows. 

"It's not the Flash-!"  
"It's the Kid Flash---!"

They both started at the same time and Jason quickly held up his hands in surrender. 

"I know, I know, the 'Kid' Flash. God, you guys are really touchy about that name." Jason said, half apologetic and grinning at the same time. Lucy shrugged. 

"The Flash meant something for us. For people in this city. He is gone now but still, everybody loved him." Henry said, and Lucy nodded, grinning. 

"Yeah, Henry here actually had a crush on him," Lucy said, bumping her shoulder at her friend next to him and Henry's face immediately reddened like it caught fire. 

"What?!" Jason choked on his coffee, and Henry shouted at the same time. 

"Lucy-!" 

Lucy's grin couldn't have gone wider. 

"What? You were totally swooning over the Flash and couldn't shut up about him. You wrote sonnets about his beautiful green eyes and how his smile was so kind it brightened your day---"  
"I did not write a sonnet, oh my god."

Henry covered his face with his hands, mortified and his two friends giggled manically. 

"It actually got worse when the Flash saved him from one meta-fight when he got stuck on crossfire, and I had to hear about how the Flash smiled at him to feel not afraid, my ears were falling off by the time ---"  
"Lucy!"

Lucy seemed to be having the time of her life. Jason was too, god Henry was a cool dude, nice hair and nice arms and he never got short of suitors when it came to his love life but it was both ridiculous and adorable that he had a crush on the said superhero. 

"This story was so going on their group chat." Jason said, wiping tears from his eyes and Henry shot him the most menacing look he could muster. 

"Don't you dare."  
"It was quite a shame that his crush ended after one week after that incident? It was a bank robbery, right?" Lucy said, and Jason gasped. 

"What bank robbery?"

Henry made this frustrated half-resigned growl again. Nobody cared. 

"His crush had to end then because that's when he saw his beloved hero being flirted shamelessly by the certain bank robber that was robbing the place."  
"What?"  
"The robber was Captain Cold." Lucy said, and Jason almost yelped. (He did not, he solemnly swears). 

"WHAT. HAPPENED?"  
Jason asked, and Lucy laughed. Henry finally sighed, a smile creeping up his face too. 

"Yeah, their usual banter, I think Snart wasn't even trying to hide it. It's all date-me-or-i-rob-this-bank situation? The Flash had the craziest villains."  
"And hot ones at that, too." Lucy chimed in, and Henry glared at her but she shrugged, no regret. What? They did look very cute together. Half of the city shipped them. " 

"You're talking crazy, woman," Henry said, and at this point, Jason was giggling like a 12-year-old. 

"Anyway, I had to see it with my own eyes to believe that the Flash had already fallen for Captain Cold, and vice versa. I actually felt very bad for the guy, Captain Cold when it-- happened."  
Henry said, and they all exchanged looks. 

By then Jason had already done his homework, he had looked up past stories about the Flash and his history, how much the city adored him and how the 'thing' happened nine months ago that took away the most beloved hero of the city away from them. Giant electric storm, Mia hadn't been kidding, when Jason had googled for the article, the pictures and videos of that day were overwhelming and beyond terrifying. A giant lightning cloud covering the the entire city, striking down building and streets ruthlessly, leaving nothing but chaos and ashes. How the Flash managed to save the city was still a mystery but just thinking about that videos made Jason shudder. 

"And you saw Captain Cold defending this coffee shop last week, huh? That's really sad and romantic." Lucy said, and Jason raised his brows. 

"Romantic?" He asked, and Lucy shrugged. 

"This was the place where they dated. Well, the coffee shop made the Flash drink and everybody loved it, and sometimes the Flash himself came flashing by for a take-out too. Then Leonard Snart started coming to this coffee shop,"  
"Always ordering the Flash-" Henry chimed in, and Lucy grinned and nodded, 

"Always order the Flash, yes, and then eventually one of the baristas invent the Cold drink to match the Flash and it has been the favorite menu for every couple visiting the coffee shop."

"Your city is crazy," Jason said, still grinning. Henry and Lucy shrugged, laughing too. 

"So, I think it's really romantic of Snart to protect his- their- cherished memory. He was a criminal then a Legend, sure, but he used to travel around, not sticking to one place and never played hero when the Flash was not involved. Now he's guarding the city 24/7, stopping every accidents and meta crimes with the Kid Flash." Lucy said, drinking her last sip of the Lemonade. 

"Honestly, I didn't think he would stick around after that. But yeah, I feel for the guy too." Henry said, nodding. 

Now Jason looked down at his drink. He had ordered 'the Cold', again, (and Henry had ordered the Flash, of course, that sappy handsome bastard) and now that he had heard the story, he had to feel bad for the poor guy. The city lost its hero, but Leonard Snart lost a lot that day too. The poor bastard didn't even leave the city and decided to protect the city in honor of the Flash, clearly not interested in playing a hero one bit(Jason saw that himself last week) but trying to protect what he had left of the hero's memory.   
God, it was like the best and worst love comedy that made Jason laugh and cry at the same time.

The rest of the conversation flew past, they talked about their friends and family, how the jobs were working for them, this and that, and after dinner and by the time they said goodnight to each other, Jason was light at heart again and thinking about where to go for a scoop this week. 

"Oh, and Olivia wanted to talk to you about something." Lucy said after she kissed his cheek and gave him a nice warm hug. 

"Yeah?" Jason said, and Lucy nodded, waving for her cab. 

"Yeah, give her a call. She said she found some interesting pattern or something and wanted you to call her." 

Jason nodded, waving his friend off with an affectionate smile. 

Olivia was another friend of his, scarily brilliant, crazy good at Science(Jason didn't understand half of what she said so she must be really good). Yeah, he should call her. See what she's got in her sleeves. 

The night was beautiful, he had published 4 good stories about one fire incident and 3 meta fights(involving the Kid Flash), and he was having a good time with his friends. 

His days couldn't get better. How could anything bad happen to him? 

 

 

~*~

 

 

"....... Please don't kill me?"

Exactly 72 hours later, Jason was standing there, trembling like a leaf, watching the man in front of him. 

The man was looking at him curiously, wind-swept brown hair and bright hazel green eyes, all beautiful and looked like the definition of a disaster waiting to happen. 

Jason knew who he was facing though he had never met the guy before in his life. The young man wasn't even wearing a suit and the lightning crackling around the man was electric-white not yellow, but still, Jason could just KNOW who he was. 

"And why would you think that?"

The man asked, a grin on his lips and lights dancing on his eyes, and god if Jason wasn't so terrified to death right now he'd be so into it but again, Jason was rooted to the ground, sheer terror taking hold of his body. 

Jason was facing the Flash, on the empty floor of a building that was about to collapse in 2 minutes. Jason watched helplessly, as the speedster jumped down from the pile of chairs he was sitting on, and walked toward him like a god in flesh and bone. 

How his life got him in this situation, Jason would never know.


	3. An Unfortunate Reunion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I thought of uploading chapter 3 then decided to make it into one chapter so this one is a bit long... hope you enjoy xD

~*~

 

 

(72 hours earlier) 

 

"There's a storm coming."

Olivia said, munching on her cereal and turning her chair. Jason looked at the charts on one of the many screens she had on the wall, it looked like a scene in a Bourne Identity movie. Or a Batman movie. Or both. 

"And you're quoting the Catman in the Batman movie. Why?"

Jason asked, and Olivia grinned. 

"You know I'm really into metahumans, like I really really like them?"

She said, and Jason rolled his eyes. She did not just like them, she was crazy about them. The more terrifying their skills and powers were, the more excited she got. But Jason just raised his brows, making a silent but obvious point. Then Olivia grinned. 

"There's a meta in this city."

Jason gaped at her. 

"Really? I haven't noticed. Your city has the Kid Flash and Killer Frost and the Vibe and everything, but I thought they were meta too!"

Jason said, and Olivia threw a cereal box at him. Jason dodged, and Olivia shot him a look but still grinned. 

"I mean, besides the obvious ones. I think this one is new and very, very powerful. AND it's moving under the radar."

She said, putting down the bowl and typing something fast on the keyboard.  
Curiosity peaking, Jason leaned onto her chair.

"How do you know that?"

"Look. He first appeared at Starling City."

Olivia said, and Jason watched the first screen. It was what seemed to be CCTV footage of a bank, people were coming and going peacefully and a blink later, papers were flying everywhere, and a bank manager came out running screaming, his glasses barely dangling on his nose. 

"And look."

She said, pointing the screen next to the first one, and it was the footage of the vault, wherein one minute everything seemed perfect until- 

"What?"

Jason said, he barely blinked an eye and saw some white lightning flashing the room and then the next moment, every secret cabinet on the wall were torn out, a giant pile of money on the table completely gone. 

"Where did they go??"

Jason squeaked, and Olivia looked like a cat that got the cream. 

"That happened to four other banks in the city. That's not all. Watch this, this film was taken two days ago. It got sealed, possibly purchased by an unknown rich guy and sealed but I could hack into the server before it disappeared from the record."

Jason now watched in excitement. Then there it was, it showed the footage of- 

"The Arrow! Wow, really?"

Jason shouted, and Olivia knitted her brows. 

"Ow. I think you broke my ears."

"Sorry. Can you send that video to my e-mail? How do you have this footage?"

Olivia gave him a look that said 'come on' and Jason felt his cell phone ping. He checked the e-mail and gave her a hug. She detached him from herself with the end of the spoon pushing his forehead. 

"Ugh, enough. Just watch this."

Jason didn't need telling twice. He watched as the screen played, ringing the Green Arrow's rough voice filling the room. 

"Who are you?"

The Arrow growled, and Jason wondered who he was talking to, when the camera turned(what seemed like a cell phone camera of a bystander) and showed-

"What is that?"

Jason gasped, and Olivia poked his side, hard. Jason yelped and shut his mouth. 

At first, it looked like a burning white torchlight. Except it was not a fire and the light was so bright even the Arrow with his mask had to screw up a little. Then Jason realized it had a human form, a male one at that, tall and lean and the outline of his face barely recognizable with all those statics and white light from the electricity that seemed to surround him. 

"Don't you recognize me?"

The man said, the voice somehow distorted as if it came through 10 vibrating walls, it was impossible to guess his original voice but somehow the Arrow flinched. Like he reacted to the voice before he could recognize it. 

"No."

The Arrow said, more slowly than before, and touched his side of the hood like he was getting suddenly the crazy amount of shouts from the communicator. The Arrow growled and pulled the communicator out, clearly done with whoever was shouting at him at the other side and glared at the glowing man. 

"I don't know you."

"Yes, you do."

The man said, they still couldn't see his face but they could sense that the man was grinning. 

"Didn't you miss me?"

The Arrow clenched his arrow and it looked like it was about to break. Then the man in white electric sparks turned on his heel, reaching out his one hand toward the large tourist bus standing next to him, and Jason noticed the sparks wrapping around his arm vibrated too fast for the eye to catch up. 

"What are you doing-"

The Arrow said, his voice alarmed. The man grinned again. 

"Sorry. I wanted a trial run before I go to the Central City."

It only took a moment for the Arrow to realize what the man was doing and 3 seconds for the vigilante to shoot multiple arrows with ropes attached to them, pulling dozens of people standing on the sideline out of the way before the first broken shards of the window came raining down on the street.  
The footage ended there because obviously the person filming the scene got dragged up with the Arrow and lost his camera in the process. 

There was silence after that. 

"So what was that man? Is he another supervillain? He's another speedster?"

Jason said, questions after questions pouring out of his mouth and Olivia shrugged. 

"That's all the footage I could get before every footage and information regarding that meta got deleted completely by an anonymous person. Or a group. I don't know, it must have taken a crazy amount of resources and hacking skills to make that kind of thing completely disappear from the web, but they somehow did."

Olivia said furiously though her voice had a hint of admiration.  
Jason was still gaping at the footage when he realized what he was missing. 

"You said the storm was coming."

Jason said, and Olivia grinned. 

"ANd this footage was taken two days ago. The man in the video said he was coming to---"

Jason stopped. He gaped at his friend, realization dawning on him.  
Olivia grinned smugly. 

"He's in the city."

 

 

~*~

 

 

"I think the team Kid Flash got the whiff of our meta."

Olivia said, two hours before Jason came face to face with the said meta. 

Jason was burying his nose in the keyboard, mindlessly going through same mountains of data that Olivia threw at him trying to track down this meta who apparently destined his whereabouts to Central City. 

Team Kid Flash was obviously on the same track as them, realizing there was a certain speedster now zooming around the city wreaking havoc from bank robberies and the sudden appearance of large tornadoes showing up in the middle of the large intersection out of nowhere. 

Olivia and Jason also realized now there were more than just Kid Flash and Captain Cold now, the Vibe and Killer Frost were also seen on the scene, which did not happen for the past 9 months. People guessed the two metas were close with the Flash of course and vanished when the hero died, but now there were pictures and talks of them everywhere, desperately trying to catch this new villain. 

People were talking too, it took less than a day for this new meta who was apparently another speedster to be the hot potato of every conversation in Central City. As powerful as they were speedsters were rare, which was fortunate because it was especially hard to contain one. How was the Kid Flash going to catch him? Could he catch him? He hasn't been able to catch up on him once since the first time this new meta appeared. Who would be faster? The new meta or the Kid Flash? 

So when he and Olivia finally got to find the faintest trace of the electric residue of the speedster's streaks, Jason ran up there with a camera in his hand. 

It was dark, cool breeze that tickled his neck had turned chilly nipping his ears, and Jason arrived at the construction site that was in the middle of the city. 

The building looked tall and gleaming in the light of the city, the glasses reflected various hues of the light and shone beautifully though it was only half finished. Jason quickly looked around, saw the street was deserted, picked open the lock(a nifty skill he learned from Mia) and entered the building. 

The building looked like something out of a post-apocalyptic movie. Cool winds were blowing from everywhere through unbuilt walls and yet to be installed glasses, making Jason shudder out of chill and nervousness. He carefully searched the floors, climbing up the stairs to the next one when he was done. 

By the time he was on the 14th floor, he was soaked in sweat and his breathing was no longer silent. His breathing was heavy and he swiped his glasses with his sleeve, put it back, and looked around. 

The view from up here was breathtaking(in another way that was Jason was panting). There were no walls all around and it felt like he had borrowed the private observatory, the entire night view of the city gleaming under his feet. 

The city was beautiful, he thought. 

But other than that the building seemed to be completely empty, which was obvious for one still under construction, but Olivia was so sure that the traces ended here. The electric something something she tracked was last detected- 

"Are you alone?"

A voice made Jason jump to his feet. He looked back, making eye contact with a man who Jason could swear that he was not there a second before. 

"Wha...."

Jason muttered. His voice seemed to get caught in his throat. The man smiled. He was sitting on a pile of chairs that were stacked in the middle of the floor, like sneaking up behind Jason out of nowhere on the 14th floor of an empty building was nothing. 

The man looked someone in his mid 20, brown hair looked soft to touch windswept, bright hazel green eyes reflecting lights from below the city, all beautiful and breathtaking. But Jason couldn't move, because as charming as the man looked before his eyes, something was wrong. Every sense of his fiber was shouting abortabortabort- and here Jason was, rooted the spot and unable to blink. 

"How did you get here?"

The man asked again, stretching his long legs on the pile of the chair, though none of the chairs even creaked. 

Jason stared at him for a full 5 seconds before he found his voice. 

"I--- My friend--- I- she and I tracked your electric meta energy residue. We.. I- thought I may find you here."

Jason stammered, his voice croaking horribly but he couldn't care. The nippy breeze that tickled his neck felt like he had a second skin, his hands and feet felt like they did not belong to him anymore. 

"....... Please don't kill me?"

Jason said because now he knew who he was facing. The young man was not wearing a red suit, the crackling electricity starting to building around him was electric-white not yellow, but Jason had watched enough pictures and videos of the hero to recognize the lean figure, his posture, and his voice. This was not just another speedster. This was--- This was---- 

"And why would you think that?"

The man said, and if it wasn't for the fact that Jason to know exactly how it was going to be the last thing he heard before he died, he might have actually found him irresistible. But then the man raised his hand, charged full of white deathly power that crackled loudly, a bolt of yellow lightning flashed past and Jason was windswept and on the ground floor. 

As soon as he realized he was no longer on the 14th floor and on the ground, he made a heaving sound. He clutched onto the nearest thing(which was the Kid Flash at this point) and gagged. Nothing came out but he was trembling like a leaf, and barely looked around when he finally regained his breath. 

There was everyone. Killer Frost, The Vibe, a beautiful reporter and a cop(Jason had no clue how they got here), a smoking blond with a large golden gun, and Captain Cold. Jason's eyes got bigger when he saw him, and they were all looking up at the building where Jason had been. Where the speedster had been. Still was. Jason gasped. 

Nobody seemed to be able to make the first move, they stared up at the building like it was going to consume them all, and then a white spark appeared at the 14th floor. 

The bright light streaked down the building in a blink and skidded on the ground, stopping 16 feet away from all of them. The white crackling light was almost blinding even from this distance, and Jason and some of the people there stepped backward but Captain Cold stood there like he was rooted to the spot, just like Jason was when he first met him. 

"It can't be."

Jason heard the Vibe whisper to himself and felt shock rippling through all of them. 

"Hi."

The meta said, still white light almost blinding and hard to look at, and nobody answered. 

"Aren't you gonna welcome me?"

The voice said, pouting even, and the pretty reporter who came with the cop shook her head. 

"It can't be. It can't be--"

"What can't be, Iris?"

The speedster said, and that voice seemed to make the woman- Iris- stumble. The cop reached out for her but she stood her ground, looking at the man like she couldn't dare take her eyes off him despite the blinding light. 

"Who are you?"

It was Captain Cold who spoke this time and everybody looked sharply back at him. The speedster smiled. 

"Don't you recognize me?"

The man said, his voice still distorted because of the simmering energy vibrating from his body but somehow that distorted voice still managed to make everybody there look pain-stricken. 

"Who. Are you."

Captain Cold gritted his teeth again and spat. 

"You know who I am Len."

The man said, and Captain Cold-Len- flinched like he was slapped in the face and raised his gun. 

"I don't."

"You sound just like Oliver."

The man laughed, and the distortion in his voice was getting lower, Jason could almost hear the real voice of a young man under there- 

"Don't you dare,"

Len said, stepping forward, Cold gun still aiming at the man. 

"Don't you dare suggest what you're trying to imply."

The man laughed. 

"Suggest what? That I'm the Flash? That I'm your boyfriend, who came back from death, Len?"

As he said, the glowing light surrounding him slowly dimmed down, revealing a face that stole Jason's breath when he first saw him. 

Brown dark hair, hazel green eyes with a hint of lightning behind them, all spellbindingly beautiful and breathtaking. 

"I'm here, Len. I'm back."

The man said softly, and Len reflexively stepped forward, his gun lowered and his hand reaching. 

"Snart!"

Kid Flash yelled and that's when Len halted. The Kid Flash stepped forward, cautiously yet his voice was stricken too. 

"If you are really you, why did you terrorize the city? Why did you rob all those places, destroy streets with hurricanes and vanished before we could find you? Why did you run away from us?"

The Kid Flash's body was surrounded by yellow sparks of the speed force. The man who claimed to be the Flash eyed them with sudden sharpness in his eyes, his face somehow turning cool despite he was grinning. 

"Because everything is going to change from this day on. You are going to see that."

Then the Flash reached out his one hand to press them on one of the columns of the building. His hand was wrapped in that threatening white electricity again it was vibrating in superspeed. Jason realized it was like what happened in the video he saw with Olivia. At that time it was only a large bus, but could he possibly--- 

"What are you doing?"

The Vibe yelled, and it was then when the entire building made this low quivering sound and shuddered. 

A loud crackling sound echoed in the air, and everybody saw as the giant crack climbed up the columns supporting the building. The tall building's glasses broke and the pieces of glass fell down starting from the top to bottom, raining down like a deadly hail on all of them. 

The Kid Flash flashed forward, but then a streak of white lightning came crashing down, and two lightning streaks collided, flashing here and there in a tangle too fast for normal eyes to follow. Killer Frost and the Vibe made protective ice shield and invisible shields, covering Jason and other people, all the while Len was standing frozen in the spot, watching the two lightning crashing with each other. 

"........ W- Kid Flash!"

The cop shouted when the speedster's fight ended, the meta kicking Kid Flash to the ground and the hero stumbled backward toward his friends in bruises. The cop and the reporter gasped, catching him and everybody stared at the man before them. 

Tens of thousands of broken glass shards were scattered around everywhere, myriads of shining broken glasses reflecting the man standing in the middle of it, and the man- the Flash- stood in the middle looking like a god in flesh and bone. 

"Why- Why?"

The Vibe cried, his voice cracked and Jason felt horrible for what he could feel from that voice. 

The man was watching them with impassive eyes, his face terrifyingly unreadable. He was looking at Len, Captain Cold, and it seemed like the time and space stopped between them. 

"Scarlet-"

Len said, his voice cracked. Nothing mattered, it didn't matter that the Flash reigned havoc in the city for the past events, it didn't matter that he almost killed them all, it didn't matter to him that he beat the crap out of the Kid Flash or that he was looking at Len like he was a stranger. It didn't matter, Len just wanted to---- 

Then the wind kissed the meta's hair, and the Flash smiled. Jason thought he did not see a more terrifying sight. 

"This was fun, let's do it again soon."

The Flash said, making move to turn around. Jason couldn't believe his ears. 

"But you're a hero- you're the Flash!"

Jason shouted, he didn't even know he was shouting for a moment, but then the Flash looked at him. Jason's breath caught. 

"I'm done with that."

The Flash said. And turning on his heel, he nodded toward where Len was standing too. 

"Done with that too."

He said, looking at Captain Cold. 

Then in the blink of an eye, the Flash was gone.


	4. Chapter 4

Cisco and Caitlin remember what it was like having a newly-made speedster. The rush of the wind on his path, the brilliant clash of sparks exploding in front of the awed eyes, the sheer burst of energy that made their skin tremble, the awe in watching something so powerful yet exquisitely beautiful. But most of all, they remembered it was Barry who made their once in a lifetime opportunity so brilliant, so valuable. Speedsters were the work of miracle themselves, one of the most powerful meta out there with so much potential still brimming under the surface, yet it was a tremendous wonder that the said meta decided to do some good with his powers.

"So the question is," Hartley said when everybody seemed to have lost their voice. 

"How do you stop a speedster?" 

They were watching the feeds of the series of the havoc that the speedster was wrecking on the city, all of them catastrophic and disastrous. People of the city were starting to grow suspicious of what was happening, Barry didn't exactly hide his speed when he wreaked havoc all over the place. People were used to considering flashing yellow lightning as a sign of hope, their hero. Now there was white platinum streak that was destroying the city, and the Team Flash was hopeless against him. Wally tried to catch him, with team Flash on his tail, but Barry was too fast. They all felt the same despair every time they faced the former-hero speedster, every bit of hopelessness washing over them just like it did when they saw the speedster covered in platinum white sparks standing over them surrounded by milliards of shards of glass.   
Barry was taunting them, waited for them to get to him, then pushed them a little further into the despair and sped away. His eyes glittered with taunts and laugh, slipping at the last second from their grasp and flashing away, leaving them on the site that the speedster had left, full of debris and smoke and tasted like a loss. 

"You think you know what speedsters are capable of,"

Joe said, watching the feeds with horror and shock. 

"... But you never really believed them because--"

Joe lost his words. 

"You never really believed them because Barry was so good."

Iris finished his sentence for him. She met her father's eyes and reached out her hands, one hand gently clasping his and embraced Wally's shoulder with another.   
They had been quiet together, people in the Starlabs. Wally was wallowing in the corner when he was not running around desperate to up his speed and catch Barry, Caitlin and Cisco were burying themselves in work and Lisa had been downright ferocious from the start. She and Barry got quite close before Barry had disappeared 9 months ago, but after their incident at the reunion, nobody could tell what the Snarts were thinking.   
They looked murderous for once, that was for sure before they stormed out of the Starlabs from that day. And to make matters worse, it was that Barry- A speedster who was once their best friend and the best defender of the city- had not just settled to be a supervillain like a world has ever seen, but also decided to change his job description from former-hero to torturer.   
Len started throwing himself to hero work after they had seen Barry that night at the abandoned construction site, seemingly decided to work off his anger by icing every evil metahuman in the city except for the one platinum speedster.   
It worked, for a brief time, before the said speedster decided to tail along Len and play with him. Cisco was actually relieved that Lisa had stormed out from the Lab that day and didn't know for sure what was going on. Lisa was probably blowing off some steam away from the city, stealing and creating chaos wherever she was going, which was far better than staying here and finding out--- 

"Has anyone seen my brother?"

Lisa said, and everyone jumped from their feet. She stormed into the Cortex with her hair flowing and she looked directly at Cisco, her eyes sharp and cool. 

"I've found a perfect city 300 miles away from 150 miles away from this damned city, I'm taking Lenny there with Mick and myself, he's been acting this heroism thing for too long and I don't want him staying any longer before he eventually loses his shred of dignity and chase after Allen. Oh and hi honey."

Lisa said rapidly, grabbing Cisco's neck for a quick peck on the lips before taking a look around her. Everybody was gaping at her, and Hartley and Cisco both stepped quickly in front of the screen in unison. 

"Uhh-.. That's great! Take a break, go on a vacation, that's a great idea."

Cisco said while Hartley tried with utmost subtlety to erase the feed from the screen but it caught Lisa's eyes. 

"... What are you guys watching?"

Lisa said, quickly stepping forward before the guys stepped in front of her again, blocking her view from the screen. Lisa narrowed her eyes. 

"Cisco, Rathaway,"

She said, in that same tone Len used and the guys both went stiff with terror. 

"Step back please."

And they exchanged glances, looking around helplessly around the room but nobody could help them. Lisa rolled her eyes, pushed them away and looked down at the screens. 

"Uhhh..... Lisa? Do you want to go to that city together? I could use a break too,"

Cisco said, trying to peel her eyes away from the screen but her eyes were already glued to the screen. 

On the screen, there was Len, fighting a new meta who could apparently shoot purple fire from his hands. He was setting fire to everywhere, people were screaming and escaping from the burning buildings while Len was facing him, fighting him with Cold gun.   
Len narrowly missed blasts of the purple blaze, shooting his own gun in a counterattack and all the while, Barry was sitting on a broken pile of a letterbox, dangling his legs mindlessly in the air, watching the fight like a boring TV show. 

"Why are you doing this?"

Barry said, sipping Pepsi from the can that burst out from the vending machine when Len had been thrown against it by the impact. 

"Doing what?"

Len snarled, shooting another angry shot at the meta who was laughing maniacally and frantically ducked for cover. 

"Saving the city. Playing the hero."

Barry said, watching as another burst of purple light burst in front of Len and Len threw himself behind a wrecked car. 

Then Len realized the car was glowing purple, the meta was burning it with all he's got and Len swore and tried to run away from it but there just wasn't enough time---- Len met eyes with Barry but the speedster hadn't moved, not even flinched from where he was and he was still grinning. 

"Snart!!"

A hand appeared from out of nowhere and grabbed Len and pulled him away. The next thing he knew Len was thrown in the air, the glowing portal had just closed and Cisco and others were there, having just saved Len's neck.   
Wally glanced back at Barry who was waving at them from up the letterbox, still sitting and seeming like there was not mad meta setting fire everywhere and the street broken in half. 

"He did not save you? You almost got blown to smithereens!"

Wally said, looking back at Len and Len was determinedly not looking back at any of them. His face was burning while his gut felt ice-cold. Barry had already said he was done with him back at that night at the construction site. Yet here he was, turning his eyes to Barry in one last hope that he would come flashing him away, telling him that this had been a horrible joke, that everything that's happened from when Barry had come back to his life was not real. Len had had that hope, clung to it while pretending everything was okay. That he wasn't devastated by the change of his boyfriend. That this was not killing him. And he hated that hope like a plague, making him even weaker and more pathetic because clearly from look of everyone around him, they knew exactly how much this was devastating Len. Len bit back a bile and flashed a cold smirk at the speedster. 

"I'm not playing the hero. I'm doing what you would have done if you were still yourself. Protecting the city that you love."

Len said, and Barry grinned. 

"Who says I'm not myself right now?"

"Because you're acting like a crazy evil meta, Barry!"

Lisa said incredulous, and Barry shrugged. 

"Just because I don't care about what happens in the city and no longer in love with your brother, that doesn't mean I'm not myself, Lis."

Cisco and others gasped, and even the evil meta lady with purple flames gasped in horror too. 

"That is just so mean!"

The evil meta lady said, and that coming from the crazy metahuman who had just burnt half the street was something. But Barry merely shrugged, saying 'meh'. The meta lady looked back at Len, her big eyes full of sympathy and that was just it for Len. 

"You----"

But Len didn't get a chance to say, because a whirl of a gun coming back to life sounded before Len could turn away and a blazing rush of gold shot past him. 

"Lisa!"

"I'm not going to kill you," Lisa said sweetly, while Barry had flashed away and appeared again at the end of the street with also a grin on his face. Lisa's grin matched his while she walked towards him. 

"I'm going to murder you."

She said, in her sweetest voice and the two of their grins got bigger. 

"Stop, stop both of you! This is getting crazy!!"

Iris yelled, but it was too late, Barry was already blurring into white lightning around the scene and Lisa was shooting her gold gun everywhere, covering everything in sight in shining gold and some of them hit the meta in the arm. 

"Ow!!!"

The meta screamed. Then the evil meta seemed to have remembered why she was there and burst into a flaming purple blast that shot through every direction, Cisco and Caitlin quickly made shields out of there power, while Wally flashed away to save civilians who couldn't duck in time. 

"Will you two crazies behave? I'm the crazy evil meta in this town!!"

The meta lady yelled, finally bursting into one giant flame that reached the sky when she was suddenly turned to ice statue.   
Everybody gaped at Len, whose Cold gun had just whirled down and stopped, him looking pissed and cold at the same time. 

"I didn't kill her, she's just temporarily frozen."

He said to gaping Cisco and Caitlin while he turned back to face Barry.   
He was there, sitting on a pile of gold that used to be a crushed car, eyes glinting with mischief and holding Lisa's gold gun in his hand. 

"Hey! That's mine, give that back you rascal!"

Lisa fumed and stalked forward, and Cisco grabbed her before she marched up to the speedster. 

"Now we have to talk, Barry."

Len said to the speedster, now that he's iced the crazy meta villain himself and everybody was quiet, it felt like he gained back his control, making his head cool and clear, analyzing and calculating everything that needed to be done. 

"What would we talk about?"

The speedster answered, his head tilted a little just like when he did when he was waiting for Len before he disappeared 9 months ago. It almost shook Len, that tiny little remembrance, but Len steeled himself and grinned. 

"I don't know what happened to you in that storm 9 months ago, but I'm going to get my boyfriend back."

Something sparked in Barry's eyes. It was too fast gone for a not-speedsters to see, but Len found it in his misery that it was yet another desperate hope that Len would cling to as his life depended on it. 

"I'm going to get you back."

Len said, almost a whisper, but Barry seemed to have heard it too. Barry smiled, and he has flashed right in front of Len before anybody could see what was happening. Len could taste the static in the air before he could see the speedster, whose eyes were hazel green shining bright against his own sparks of electricity. 

"You're going to regret it, Len."

And before Len could get hold of the speedster he was gone, and though he knew the speedster was right, Len was counting every second of it.


	5. Are you there yet?

Monday was frosty. 

"Why do you guys keep trying?"

The speedster said, his pose at ease sitting on the bench, sipping from a take-out coffee cup from the Jitters.  
He looked casual, at peace, only that the scene before him was not so casual, there was smoke coming from everywhere, the City Hall building was half-frozen, half-burnt(thanks to brilliant help of Mick), Cisco and others' faces were covered in half-frost and half-ashes(again, thanks to brilliant Mick). The cause of all this mayhem, the speedster, Barry Allen, was sitting there pretty, looking innocent and untouched, despite all the dirty looks his friends were glaring at him covered in frost and dust. 

"Because we care for you Barry."

Iris said, her hair was all messed up, a dab of black ash smeared across her cheek, and she looked at her best friend imploringly. 

"Because we want to get you back. We want our friend back."  
"Seriously, can't you just give us a break? Just let us catch you for once, please?"

Cisco said, even to his own ears it sounded pathetic(Cisco would not admit it, not in a million years but he was really desperate now, he could just fall down and go to sleep right on this broken street he could swear). Hartley was not looking better than him next to him, already have sat on the bare ground, his glasses broken and hanging on to his nose for its dear non-life. Iris and Caitlin didn't look so great either, Lisa was half-swearing and half-asleep, her golden curls darkened with ashes and dust. She could have murdered Barry on looks alone if she was not so tired. 

"What would you do when you have me?"

Barry asked.

"Just tell us what's wrong, Barry. What's made you do this. Or we could check you up, see what's happened to you---"

Caitlin said desperately, and Barry grinned. 

"You think I'm under some control, that I'm somehow manipulated or drugged up to do this?"

The speedster said, his chin lightly pointing to all the wreckage around them. Caitlin opened her mouth, then closed it. They've been going round and round, them trying to catch Barry and see what has happened to their friend. Barry looked at his once-friends, all covered in dust and miserable, his eyes met Len's, and Barry smiled. 

"Now!"

Iris yelled, and Hartley who had been squatting on the ground bolted right up, sending powerful waves across the ground as he did so, and while the ground shifted trembling, Cisco teleported himself through a portal right behind Barry with Caitlin. Caitlin and Cisco reached out their hands, Caitlins' already emitting frosty energy, grabbing for Barry's arm. 

Their faces lit up with hope and excitement when a spark of lightning flashed. The next thing they knew, Barry was on the other side of the street, laughing and flashing away, while Caitlin's frosted hand was glued to Cisco's face, making both the Viber and Froster yelp in surprise. 

"'Aitlin!"

Cisco yelped, his lips already frosted and his words slurred because of frozen lips, yelled and Caitlin was mortified as she tried to wipe out the frost on his face, making it only worse.  
Barry turned to Len. 

"Are you there yet?"

Len blinked. 

"What?"

Barry grinned at him, turning around to the rest of his friends, waving his hand. 

"See you around guys."

Barry said as Len turned around to see the speedster flash away grinning. 

 

 

❄❄❄

 

 

Wednesdays they got more creative. And this is what they got. 

"D, D, Duh,"

Wally said, his lips blue as the rest of his face. 

"What is he saying?"

Caitlin asked, squeezing off water from her shirt. 

"D, Do you know,"

Wally said, his teeth clattering furiously despite the multiple blankets on his back, 

"W, what cold does to a speedster?"

Len would have made several creative snides about that comment, but being the one to have fallen into the frozen lake with himself, he was in no condition to make any comment at all. Len glared at the speedster furiously(as best as he could with his whole body shaking up so badly) and the speedster(who was cheeky enough to stand right beside them as they have already failed at catching him).  
Their plan involved the frozen lake, breaking the surface with Hartley and Mick's power when they lured Barry into the middle of the lake while Cisco and Wally held him in place. Well, long story short they succeeded in catching a speedster, the speedster being Wally though. 

"Really? Really Barry?"

Iris said, her hands on her hip and Barry dared to look like a sorry puppy. Just when Iris was about to melt despite her will to steel herself, the speedster grinned again. 

"Are you there yet?"  
"What?"

Iris said, blinking, and Len whipped his head around. Barry showed one last grin to him, and then flashed away. 

 

 

❄❄❄

 

 

Len looked up at the ceiling. He was on the floor, snow piled around him. It was snowing, it would have been quite a normal sight but only they were indoors of a department store. The department store was snowing. At least the early Christmas deco was fitted to it.  
There was a soft sound of boots crunching on the snow closing onto Len on the floor. 

"Why do you keep asking me that?"

Len asked when the footstep stopped and a pair of hazel green eyes stared down at him upside down. 

"Ask you what?"

Two beautiful green eyes that used to make Len's heart beat so fast that it hurt came into view. Too bad they didn't lose their charms even when they tore Len's heart apart. As the speedster has ripped apart this department store, civilians have just left the building a minute ago in a hurry, with help of the team Kid Flash. They seemed to have given Len and Barry some space if their lack of presence in the deserted hall was any indication.  
Barry smiled down at him. 

"Stop looking like that and answer me. Why do you keep asking me whether I'm there yet? Where the hell am I supposed to be?"

Len scowled. Even from upside down, of course, he had to look beautiful. Len really wished he would stop that. Barry grinned even more. 

"At the point where you give up on me."

Barry said, his tone simple as that. Len's eyes widened.

"What?"

That made Len push himself upright. If the speedster wasn't holding him back down with his feet. God Len growled in frustration because that's how angry he was with himself for being so weak on the speedster. He knew he looked pathetic, on the floor held by the tip of the speedster's boots yet all he wanted to do was to do exactly that, hang onto the speedster's leg and make him stay. Make him stay with him. 

"You need to learn Snart. Stop trying to give chances to things that are already lost."

Barry said, and Len scoffed. 

"I've had a pretty stubborn boyfriend who taught me otherwise."

Len said, grinning at the speedster who was now losing his smile. 

"I'm not drugged, manipulated, or under some control, Snart. You have to start letting me go."  
"Are you doing this whole new-found supervillain thing because you want to break up with me?"

Len said, and that got an odd smile from the speedster. 

"You need to start realizing who's on your side and who's not. I'm not on your side Snart."  
"Would you mind calling me Len? Because my boyfriend used to call me that."

Len said, gritting his teeth and flashing a smile at the speedster because he really didn't like where this conversation was going. 

"You have to let me go."

Barry said like he was trying to make a very petulant child understand something. It only made Len grin more defiantly. Barry scrunched up his face at Len's grin and Len used to tease him that it made him look like a 5-year-old. Even now it still made Len's heart burst with affection. 

"Do you know how hard it is to teach a thief to let things go? It's why we are thieves. We take what we want and we are hardly known for self-sacrificing."  
"And yet you did."

Barry whispered, his eyes flashing something so deep that Len tried hard to grab it. What was that?  
Barry sighed. Somehow the triumphant speedster suddenly looked so tired, so beaten. 

"You're a good man Snart. You need to be the man you're supposed to be without me, and see that I'm not the man worth all this hassle for. It's only going to get worse for you."  
"See, you're doing this all wrong. If you were going to make me break up with you, you need to stop telling me that I'm a good man and looking like that."

Len said, and Barry smiled at that.

"This is the final offer for you. It's really going to get worse from now on. I'm offering you a way out because I'd rather not break you down myself."

A snowflake fell down from the sky. It landed on Barry's nose, he twitched his nose just like the first time when they went out on their first date. Len had memorized every second of it by heart, how it took Len's breath away when he saw Barry doing that, how it made him want to kiss him, and when he did and opened his eyes, he saw snowflakes resting on Barry's lashes and god he looked beautiful. Being in love with the speedster has never been an easy job. He was a walking disaster, even when he was a hero and wasn't wreaking havoc all over town like he was doing now. He was a calamity wrapped in pretty face and breathtaking smile and he was beautiful. 

"Bring it."

Len said, and Len really couldn't tell what it was that flashed across Barry's face at his words-anger, disappointment, hope or relief-he really couldn't tell, but then Barry smiled. As the sound of footsteps of Cisco and his friends approached, Barry flashed away a bit and Len stood up, brushing off snow from his parka and looking at Barry.  
Before he flashed away, Barry looked around and called Len. 

"Oh, and Len?"

Len turned around. 

"As long as you love me,"

Barry said his face lighting with a grin that made Len's heart stop again. 

"You're never getting out of this hell alive."

And so it was on.


	6. Did Wally see something?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading as always <33333

"We have more than enough stuff on our plate,"

Wally said, his cowl half-singed from the sheer toxicity of the meta-energy,

"Why can't we get a break?"

He said and Cisco couldn't agree more.   
Len was looking both challenged and murderous at the same time, (Cisco really wanted to forget the line that Hartley said the other day: "imagine their makeup sex when they get back together, I'd like to join them if they'd let me), I mean, seriously, Hartley?)  
So despite the gross remark of the Pied Piper and growing frustration of Len, things were hectic as always, the speedster being true to his words that he'd make this the living hell for Captain Cold and his friends.

There were endless supplies of new villains flooding into the city every week, somehow the news that the Flash himself turned supervillain seemed to attract the villains around the neighbor even more. They fell into this weird unspoken rhythm, the villains and supervillains alike who were drawn to the city, where they wreak havoc on the city under the Flash's order and watch. Of course, some of them were defiant, didn't want to take orders from the ex-hero and challenged the Flash but they all failed pathetically faster than they could spell their names.

The Flash was all green eyes and easy smiles on his lips right until you crossed the line, then he was standing there his feet on the supervillain's neck who didn't know better, looking down at the once-mighty villain whimpering pathetically on the floor with the most beautiful smile on his face. Barry made sure that the supervillain was in a trembling mess of whimper by the time team Flash got to the scene, not without a very public demonstration why it was a bad idea to cross the fastest man alive.

So the new-found team of supervillains under the Flash was causing new kind of mayhem in the city, always making the grand show of it all, sometimes working in the most unexpected combination, like the Blazer(a metahuman who could erupt fire with the clap of his hands) and the Whistleblower(a metahuman who would whistle and bring hurricanes in the city, really a dope nickname that Len came up with, Cisco was NOT jealous). 

The mix that Barry came up with was usually most effective in the most unwelcome ways, it amplified their synergy in destroying the city, always effectively sabotaging the team Flash's efforts to capture and bring their friend in. Barry was as bad as Len himself when he was a supervillain orchestrating all these mayhem, even worse in Ciscos' and Iris's opinion because seriously, the flare and dramatic was way out of control.

Len had to give it to his boyfriend(no they have not broken up, no he was not delusional and no he was not pathetic no matter what Lisa said multiple times in his face) for his ability to keeping his promise to show Len hell for still being in love with him.   
(Sometimes Len wonders to himself where has his life has gone so wrong, he was just an innocent thief who earned his daily livings by stealing diamonds or robbing banks).

"I did once tell you you'd make an exceptional supervillain if you put your mind to it, Scarlet."

Len said, facing the speedster who was sitting leisurely on the bench, with his badass sunglasses on and popsicle on his mouth like he just didn't melt down a Superdome with the combination of supervillains of his choosing in front of their eyes(really, Barry shouldn't be able to choose whatever villains of his choosing like he was choosing flavor of the month, it was so unfair(and scary)).

"You're doing more than an excellent job in proving me right."

Len said, and Barry grinned. The badass sunglasses did fit perfectly on the speedster's face, his mouth opened almost sinful at the red popsicle teasingly(it was not doing a good job of distracting Len at all, not at all really) and half the supervillains on Barry's bidding were lost in the sight of it.   
Len was very tempted to ice them all on the spot, he would have done it already if he wasn't supposed to be the hero in this current (very frustrating) time.

Wally was watching Barry with careful eyes when he thought he saw something glint in Barry's hands. It was so fast, nobody in the spot noticed it but as a fellow speedster and paying attention, Wally thought he sure saw Barry's hand flutter for a moment like a hummingbird, a knee-jerk reaction without control of its owner for a split second.

It looked like Barry's hand was glowing with that automatic vibration, with barely recognizable spark slivering on his skin.   
Wally halted. What the hell was that?

Then Wally met Barry's eyes, and he smiled, flashed away without another word. Wally was rooted to the spot while everybody else was complaining like usual how they were going to clean up all this mess, his heart beating irregularly in his chest.  
Nobody else saw it, it all happened in nano-second, it was like they were alone in the same speedster zone with everybody else frozen in time so Wally couldn't ask if somebody else saw it too.

... Did Barry just put his finger on his lip at Wally and then flashed away?

 

So that was Monday.

 

 

***

 

 

The week passed by in peace. Everybody enjoyed the unusual peace that rarely came by these days. Of course, there were still evil metahumans showing up here and there, but it was easy enough to stop them as Barry didn't show up, pointing tips to the villains and distracting Team Flash with his talks and laughter.

Without the speedster, bringing down the regular villains that showed up without plans and guidance was like a picnic, though they wondered where their friend had gone. Wally wondered if it had anything to do with what he saw on the first day of the week. He kept wondering if he really did see Barry giving him a secret sign to keep quiet about glowing hand or he was now just hallucinating things.

It was not good to be a speedster in times like that, when you could only ask someone around you about what you saw if they were speedsters too and there was no one to ask about it. 

Wally did contemplate telling this to Len at least, but when he saw Snart standing silently in the empty Cortex, lost in thought as he stared down the fountain pen that he knew Barry gave to Len the winter before last(it was blue with white crystals engraved on it, making it look snow-touched).  
The former thief always kept it around, showing it off like it was nothing and Iris used to call him dork and the couple disgusted her).

The sight broke Wally's heart even though he never really got cozy with Snart once, he missed Barry and his family missed Barry too, and the way it broke Snart made him feel some kind of companionship with the former villain.   
He didn't know if it was the right thing to do to give Snart a glimpse of hope when the man was desperate to grab at straws when it could be so easily taken away when it turned out to be nothing.

So that was Thursday when Wally finally decided to stop torturing himself about it forget it. He must have imagined it, too tired to think straight and too desperate to get Barry back.   
The said speedster was still eerily silent the whole time.

 

 

***

 

 

Then came Sunday.   
Wally watched in horror as the black flame engulfed his left arm.

"I don't know how fast you are Kid Flash,"

the metahuman in black leather suit grinned as she looked down on a heap of people lying on the ground, including the said Kid Flash.

"But you'd have to be damn fast to survive me."

Then Wally's visions shook as the darkness engulfed him.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you enjoy <3333333

"Wally!"

Iris and others shouted as the speedster skidded to the Cortex his face almost chalk white and his hands blackened like he was burnt and smoked. Wally had lost conscious again then when he woke up 5 hours had passed when he last saw their panicked faces flickering out of sight. 

"Man, you gave us one hell of a scare, would you not do that? Like never?"

Cisco said when Wally opened his eyes and everybody gathered around him sighing in relief. Iris and Joe hugged him, though not too tight because his hand was covered in accelerated healing bands and his nose was attached to a respirator. 

"I don't need this, I'm fine---"  
"You're lying down and accept whatever treatment we give you mister."

Caitlin said, and Wally closed his mouth. His sister and dad were giving him this big anxious looks that Wally rolled his eyes but didn't protest anymore. 

"Her powers was a deadly poison that could affect you in seconds and kill you in twenty minutes. Starling City had many casualties before the Arrow chased her away and she fled here. You narrowly escaped death, literally."

Cisco said and Joe shuddered behind him. Wally gave his dad a sorry look. 

"It's a good thing that you used your speedforce to stay awake, that was clever."

Hartley said and Wally sighed. It was really a last-second instinct when Wally felt his world blacked out and he knew he had to stay awake and reach his team in the Starlabs or he would really die. His instinct was correct, it seemed, and Wally shuddered to think what would have happened if he passed out right there. 

"How do we stop her? I can't even get near her, that's how I've got stung by her power."

Wally said, remembering how he was already gasping for air at the merest graze against the forcefield around her when he flashed forward to get near her. His right arm which had been stretched front was hit the worst, it had blackened the second it was affected. 

"Your speed force had protected you to endure longer than others would have, otherwise, you really could have died on the spot."

Caitlin said and Wally nodded. 

"If she hits again,"

Len said, and everybody turned around. 

"The first thing we need to do is to bring everybody who was affected to the hospital immediately."

Len said, and everybody turned to him. 

"Wally and Cisco can move people the fastest. You two should move people when the situation comes. Me and Dr.Snow can slow the forcefield of the meta with cold, while others stop her."

Caitlin and others nodded, looking worried but determined.   
When they dispersed, Len found Cisco looking nervous and fidgeting. He approached him, when the scientist turned around and yelped at him. 

"What's on your mind, Cisco?"

Len asked, raising his eyebrow and Cisco looked like he was fighting with himself to decide if he should talk out loud or not. 

"You know Barry has been like the villain of the city last month?"  
"It's surprising what your perception can notice, Ramon."

Len said, and Cisco rolled his eyes. 

"I mean, you know what I mean. But he never actually--- you know?"

Len looked unimpressed and Cisco continued. 

"He never actually hurt anyone, not really. Nobody has died and nobody was seriously hurt. I've been checking up on it, it's really impossible to do that when you wreak havoc all over town and make a grand show for it as he has."

Cisco said and Len paused. He knew that. Of course he knew that. The Flash turned evil but he didn't kill or even greatly hurt anybody. It was always buildings and streets that took the hit and it was never people. That was one of the reasons people in the city still didn't have a strong feeling about the hero-gone-bad, there were no casualties despite all the mayhem that's been going around since Barry had returned. 

"Barry says all those stuff and he does all those stuff... but he's never harmed anyone. Maybe he could help us. Maybe he really didn't go all bad and he might actually help us."

Cisco said, and Len had to push down the hope that was desperate to climb back up his heart and stomped it. He did not need this, he did not need to jump to the most minute possibility that he could get his Barry back and let it crush him again, not when he needed to focus on the deadly meta that could literally kill everyone on the street until their team found out a way to stop her. He was going to get his Barry back---- but meanwhile, he needed to think clearly. 

"Noted, Cisco."

Len said, tapping Cisco on the shoulder. The scientist wasn't doing great himself either, Barry was Len's boyfriend but Cisco's best friend too, and it was clear that Cisco like everyone else here was struggling with it.   
It was when he walked out of the Cortex and out of cool air of the corridor that he breathed out his shaking breath. 

'Maybe Cisco was right', a treacherous whisper at the back of Len's mind whispered, 

If Barry had truly gone to the bad side, it would have been impossible to leave no casualties behind, not with the havoc he's been wreaking past month.   
Maybe Barry was waiting for him. Maybe he was seeking help, just like Cisco was implying.   
Maybe, just maybe,   
Barry still loved Len. 

"... ...."

Len grit his teeth, his nails digging up his palm enough to bleed.   
Hope was a stupid, deceitful thing. But he couldn't kill it, stupid Barry Allen for making him a forlorn idiot. 

 

 

*** 

 

 

Wally and Cisco were zipping through streets and opening portals too fast and too many to keep count. Yet still, the street was flowing with chocking people, gasping for air and falling. The speedster and the Vibe were barely keeping people from dying on the street and the rest of the team Flash was barely standing against the meta, narrowly missing the deadly attack. They were able to keep her at bay with the force of the Cold gun and Caitlin's cold power, but it was getting overwhelming pretty fast as more and more people were affected by the force field by seconds. 

"Really, still not helping?"

Cisco shouted over the chaos to Barry, who was again being the leisurely spectator in their fight against the evil meta.   
The speedster was watching the whole scene unravel in front of him this time with--- 

"Popcorns? Really? Are you trying to get us to kill you?"

Hartley shouted, and Barry shrugged. 

"You guys broke the vending machine over there, I really couldn't resist."

Barry said, tossing another popcorn in his mouth. The sound of Hartley grinding his teeth could almost overwhelm the sound of the street exploding with Coldgun and Goldgun. 

"You guys seriously don't get that I'm not on your side anymore, do you?"

Barry said, sighing and throwing his head back in boredom just as a chunk of asphalt split past him from the impact of powers clashing with each other. 

"You have no problems with this?"

Cisco shouted to the metawoman and she just shrugged and turned to Barry with a blushing face. 

"It's flattering of you to watch, Flash, really."

The metawoman shouted over the exploding asphalts and she dared to bat her eyes. 

"I've really heard wonderful things about you in Starling City, you think you can let me join your new gang here in Central?"

The meta asked Barry while she shot another burst of energy at Len and Lisa, and Lisa shouted in frustration and shot another ray of Goldgun at her, which the meta quickly dodged. 

"This is not a job interview,"

Cisco shouted, 

"Don't make this a job interview for you, you crazy woman!"

Cisco said, and the metawoman shrugged and pouted.

"Why not?"  
"Snart!"

Mick shouted as he saw the black energy force heading her way. Lisa who was shooting gold gun at the meta growled furiously and ducked. Len's heart nearly dropped when he saw her face and arms painted black when she got up but it was only dust. 

"Careful, will you?"

Len shouted, and Lisa laughed. 

"I'm so gonna make her regret she ruined my shoes."

As much as Len was on the same page of teaching the meta a lesson, they had to duck for cover when another sweep of energy field narrowly missed their heads. This was getting more and more close, and that was when Caitlin screamed. 

"Hartley!"

Her scream was what made everybody turn their heads, in time to see Hartley falling on the ground, gasping for air. Caitlin ran for him, just when she was hit by the energy force in the back too. 

"Cait!!"

Cisco shouted as he just pushed another fallen woman into the portal to the hospital. That pause gave the meta just enough time to get near him, squeezing his shoulder like an old friend and grinning at the horrified scientist. 

"Gotcha."

The meta said, and Cisco gaped, stumbling backward but his shoulder was already smoking and he was gasping for breath too. 

"Snart!!"

Wally shouted, and Len fired Coldgun around the meta, freezing the energy zone she was expanding in the air and the ice dome that surrounded her froze in place, while Wally flashed forward. 

"This had better work---!"

Wally gritted his teeth as he reached the frozen dome, his hand holding a gear that Hartley and Cisco had devised for him earlier, the power dampener for metas and that's when the dome cracked, and a hand pushed out of the dome from behind the speedster grabbed Wally's arm.   
The speedster shook it off in shock but it was too late, Wally was already falling heavily on the dome which shattered under the speedster's weight, and the metawoman climbed out of the dome, looking triumphant. 

"Seriously, I thought I'd have better fun playing with you guys."

The meta said, chunks of ice crushing under her boots. 

"I've heard so much about you in Starling City and here you all are. All just scrambling."

Then she smiled. Len acted before he knew what he was doing and grabbed Lisa and threw her out of the way. The burst of energy that came from meta's body exploded around, hitting everyone within the range of her sight. Len felt his body being thrown backward in the air, hitting the ground in a loud thud and he knew his ears were bleeding. 

"Len!!"

Lisa screamed and ran to him. Len would have teased her but his lung was already burning up, his hands already blackened like it was burnt crisp. It felt like it did too, now Len knew why they were clawing as he felt his veins pumped poison throughout his body and heart.   
He saw Lisa's panicked brown eyes, she had tears in her eyes which he hadn't seen since she was 12. Len really wanted to tease her about it if his mouth wasn't coughing up blood already.   
His ears were ringing, and as he heard the meta's footsteps approaching him and Lisa, he tried to push his sister away from the scene. Of course Lisa wouldn't budge, swearing and shooting Goldgun at the approaching meta which she dodged and then shot a force of energy that snatched the gun out of Lisa's hand. 

"Go, Lisa!"

Len gritted, grabbing for the Cold gun that he dropped to buy his sister time to run but the meta got there first, kicking away the Coldgun out of reach and looked down at the Snarts. Her grin got bigger. 

"Now, look what we have here."

The meta said, and Len felt his lungs burn. It felt like his body caught on flames and his skin was melting. Len never understood why Mick was so obsessed with fire to the point of getting burnt alive, which by the way Len was finding a really agonizing, awful pain. 

"Barry! Help him!"

Lisa screamed, not caring the hovering hand of death above her face but holding Len tight in her arms. Barry who was still sitting on the bench, Barry who never sat up while his friends were shot down by the poison force one by one. Barry who was looking down at Len on the ground, coughing blood and still not an ounce of warmth or care in those green eyes. 

"Help us!!"

Lisa shouted, and Barry shrugged. 

"I can't and I won't. You know that."

Now the metawoman stopped in her track, watching the three of them in open curiousness and interest. 

"Yes, you can. And you will. You love my brother if for fuck's sake you really can't remember, you loved this man, Flash!"

Lisa said, and it broke Len's heart to hear her sound like that, but all he could do was spend the last energy left in him to keep his eyes open. 

"I told you over and over again,"

Barry said, his eyes suddenly cold and unsmiling, and looked down at Snarts. 

"That I no longer have any feelings for your brother. That you should know who's on your side and who's not. It's your fault that you can't accept me for who I've become and now it's on himself that he's dying."

Barry said as he watched the last hope was slipped away from Lisa's eyes. The metawoman who waited to see all these finally stepped forward. 

"Phew, that was brutal. I'd say I'll be taking away your pain now when I finish you two, now it seems like mercy compared to what I've just seen."

The meta reached for Lisa and Len grit his teeth. 

"Don't touch her--"

He used every strength left in his body to push her away, do anything to stop her from reaching his sister, but she gently grazed Lisa's neck with the tip of her finger and then Lisa was gasping too. 

"No!"

Lisa's body fell beside him, and Len felt his lungs burning. 

"Barry,"

Len said, his breath ragged and he used last bit of his strength to look the speedster in the eye, whose face was now a blur in Len's pained eyes. 

"Save her, please."

Len said, his voice now a whisper, he blinked furiously to see Barry's face straight, but the blur didn't go away and he couldn't see clearly. Lisa's body was trembling beside him, he desperately grabbed her cold hand in his hand and squeezed. She couldn't die. His sister was not going to die. 

"Save her,"

Len said, and as his blurred vision would allow, he saw Barry leaning toward him, and the speedster whispered. 

"No."

Then everything went dark.


End file.
